Parents whose 16-year-old son, an aspiring chemist, was shot by an admitted gang member, left a courtroom Friday frustrated that the killer won't be sent to prison and could be free within months.

"It's just sad that had to be the decision," said Janice Wallace.

Her son Quinton Wallace Jr. died June 29 after an errant bullet struck his head when members of the Bloods street gang and their rivals, the Vice Lords, engaged in a gun battle about 5:30 p.m. in the middle of a residential street.

With his parents by his side, Marcus Goodman, 16, an admitted Vice Lords member, pleaded guilty in Shelby County Juvenile Court to voluntary manslaughter and employment of a firearm in the commission of a dangerous felony.

Chief gang prosecutor Ray Lepone decided not to seek transfer to adult court — a decision he said he has never made before in the decade he had prosecuted gang cases. The veteran prosecutor told the judge weaknesses in state laws tie his hands in the case.

Special Judge Dan Michael ordered Goodman, a student at Southwest Prep Academy, placed in the custody of the state Department of Children's Services. Under state law, DCS officials — not the judge — decide when the teen goes free. That could be as soon as six to nine months.

"I've spoken with the (victim's) family and they're not very happy with this," Lepone said. "Frankly, there's not much we can do."

Lepone said he can't bring murder charges when there is "mutual combat" with gang members firing at one another because each side can argue they were firing in self defense. And no one alleges that the victim was an intended target.

The argument started at a Klondike swimming pool over a water-logged cell phone. A Bloods member blamed Goodman's brother for damaging his phone, which ended up in the pool, but the brother wouldn't agree to pay to replace it, Lepone said.

Blood members later jumped the brother and beat him up, causing the gang to want revenge, Lepone told the judge.

The Goodman brothers called a fellow Vice Lords member, known as "Scarface," and he brought them guns, the prosecutor said. Then the gang went searching for their rivals.

The first shots were fired on Crockett, but no one was hit. Both sides blame the other side for firing first.

Everyone ran, ending up on Kney Street, where both sides exchanged fire, Lepone said. The prosecutor said the victim, who had been standing in a nearby driveway, was not in a gang or involved in the feud, but his cousin was a Blood.

"Kids are killing kids every day for nothing," the victim's mother said.

Lepone told the judge, in earshot of the defendant, "He needs to know he will be on my radar." Lepone said he and other members of the Multi-Agency Gang Unit, comprised of state and federal prosecutors and investigators, will be watching to see "if he even spits on the sidewalk."

He also said the investigation is continuing in to the identity of "Scarface," who supposedly supplied the Vice Lords with guns.

"This case is a poster case for what is happening every day in our community," Lepone said. "There were eight to 10 gang bangers out there shooting at each other in a neighborhood.

"Every gang member out there that day, they are all responsible for Quinton Wallace's death."